SURVEY OF COAST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23218, 16 June 1937, Page 10

SURVEY OF COAST

ARRIVAL OF ADMIRALTY SHIP ELABORATE EQUIPMENT V WORK MAY TAKE TEN YEARS (Special to Daily Times) AUCKLAND. June 15. Distinguished by her yacht-like lines, white paint, and yellow funnel, the Admiralty survey ship Endeavour arrived at Auckland from Newcastle this morning, and berthed at Devonport naval base. The Endeavour, which is commanded by Captain A. G. N. Wyatt, will remain in New Zealand for about two years, and will begin a survey and charting of the coastline, work that is expected to take well over five years and possibly as much as 10. When she leaves she will be replaced by a new survey ship, which is to be built in England. The whole of the New Zealand coastline is to be surveyed by the Endeavour and her successor, but in order to make the task simpler the work to be done has been divided into sections, and the Endeavour is to do the survey and charting of three of these sections. Working all the time from Auckland, she will produce three coastal sheets covering the area from Hauraki Gulf to Three Kings Islands, and she may be expected to return to Auckland at frequent intervals for coaling. Her provisional programme provides for a stay of about a fortnight at the naval base while Captain Wyatt attends to various official business and some technical details are arranged. When the survey is started the work will continue until next winter, when there will be a lie-up season of from three to four months for refit while her officers draw up charts of the work done. She will leave again at the end of June or the beginning of July, and will work through until the spring, by which time her future movements will have been decided. URGENT NECESSITY

It has been recognised for many years that a complete survey of the Dominion's coastline by modern methods is an urgent necessity, but, because specially-equipped ships are required for the work, it was not until the Endeavour was free to undertake the task that the survey could proceed. Under arrangements made by the New Zealand Government with the Admiralty, the British Government is providing the Endeavour complete, and will bear all the expenses of pay and maintenance, leaving the Dominion authorities to provide the fuel and the cost of docking and refitting. What survey work of the New Zealand coastline has been done in the past is shown by charts carried on board. The Endeavour is fully capable of undertaking hydrographic surveys of any size, from the point of view of trained officers, who are naval men who volunteered for survey work and have been trained on such ships as the Endeavour, add also in regard to gear. All inshore work is done by two 28ft motor boats, specially equipped with latest pattern echo-sounding gear, and all deep-water work is undertaken by the ship, always working in contact with the shore. The echo-sounding gear gives a continuous trace of the sea bottom, accurately measuring the time interval between the sending out of a signal and the reception of the echo. This time interval measures the depth of water. The soundings are taken several times a second all the time the ship is working, and this method represents a great advance over the old hand system of throwing deep leads over the side to take soundings when the maximum rate of taking them was probably only one every 30 seconds. EXTENSIVE WORK Since the war the Endeavour has been doing survey work, mainly on the west coast of Africa, in the Mediterranean, in the Red Sea. and in Malacca" Straits. She left Sheerness on February 20 to come to New Zealand and did survey work in the Red Sea and Malacca Straits and oceanographical work in the Indian and Tasman Oceans. The work she did on the way across from Newcastle was responsible for her arrival at Auckland a day later than was at first expected. The Endeavour, which is of 1280 tons and carries one gun, a threepounder in the bows, has a complement of 136, including the officers, whoso names are as follows: —Captain Wyatt, Lieutenant-commander J. Y. G Torlesse (who is a descendant of Edward Gibbon Wakefield). Lieutenantcommander W. B. Monk. Paymaster-lieutenant-commander G. I. G. Marfell, Lieutenant H. J. C. Stokes, Lieutenant J. M. Sharpey-Shafer, and Lieutenant A. A. C. Gage.